Thursday, April 23, 2009

As the days in Paris get longer and longer, this song just gets more and more appropriate. Josh Pyke's lyrics are so unapologetically Australian. The imagery he manages to squeeze into a pretty standard verse/chorus song is quite superb. It is a complement to the "evocativeness" of the lyrics that I found the actual clip to be a bit of a disappointment. It was as if I didn't really need someone to provide me with images for the music. I had them all in my head already.

Listen for the perfect slide guitar on the very last note. It's like the very last of the sunlight slipping away on a summer evening as you play cricket in the street with your mates, using a taped up tennis ball and an otto bin for stumps. All songs should end this way.

The Summer - Josh Pyke

If I could bottle up the sea breeze I would take it over to your houseAnd pour it loose through your garden (Does everyone feel warm inside?)So the hinges on your windows would rust and colourLike the boats pulled up on the sand for the summerAnd your sweet clean clothes would go stiff on the lineAnd there’d be sand in your pockets and nothing on your mind

But every year it gets a little bit harderTo get back to the feeling of when we were fifteenAnd we could jump in the river upstreamAnd let the current carry us to the beginning whereThe river met the sea againAnd all our days were a sun-drenched hazeWhile the salt spray crusted on the window panes

We should be living like we lived that summerI wanna live like we live in the summer

And I’ll remember that summer as the right oneThe storms made the pavement steam like a kettle (so great!)And our first goodbye always seemed like hoursIn the car park in between my house and yoursAnd if the summer holds a song we might sing foreverThen the winter holds a bite we’d never felt before

But time is like the oceanYou can only hold a little in your handsSo swim before we’re brokenBefore our bones becomeBlack coral on the sand